FBI: 3 Russians charged with spying, 1 arrested in New York

Federal prosecutors in the United States have announced charges against three Russian men who allegedly operated an international spy ring based out of New York City.

US attorneys said Monday that Evgeny Buryakov, Igor
Sporyshev, and Victor Podobnyy have been charged “in
connection with Buryakov’s service as a covert intelligence agent
on behalf of the Russian Federation.” Buryakov unlawfully
acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, the
federal complaint alleges, and his co-defendants are charged with
conspiracy thereof.

The US Federal Bureau of
Investigation says that their investigation into the three
co-defendants began shortly after ten alleged Russian spies,
including Anna Chapman, were arrested in 2010 following a
multi-year investigation. “Within a few months” of the
Russians’ subsequent guilty pleas, according to this week’s
statement, the FBI began investigating Buryakov, Sporyshev and
Podobnyy.

According to the FBI, Buryakov maintained a cover job in the US
as an employee in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank, but
actually worked to gather intelligence for Russia’s Foreign
Intelligence Service, SVR. A public LinkedIn profile for a man with the same name as
Buryakov suggests he may have been working as a deputy
representative in the US for Russia’s Vnesheconombank.

Just in: FBI arrests Russian spy in the Bronx who was part of
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Sporyshev and Podobnyy posed as a Russian trade rep and a United
Nations attaché, respectively, but allegedly worked as
intermediaries between Buryakov and the SVR, according to the
Department of Justice.

Together, the three are accused of aiding the Russian
Federation’s intelligence gathering operations by collecting
details on economic issues and other matters that could be
exploited for the Kremlin’s gain.

According to a sealed complaint entered last week in the Southern
District of New York and made public on Monday, the individuals
fished for details on potential sanctions against Russia, as well
as America’s efforts to develop alternative energy resources,
then sent them back to the Kremlin.

Additionally, Buryakov was "formulating questions to be used
for intelligence-gathering purposes by others associated with a
leading Russian-state-owned news organization,” according to
the complaint, and the individuals sought to recruit Americans
from a New York City university and unnamed "major"
companies to help spy on behalf of Moscow.

FBI catches Russian spy in NY, just before he disappears into
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Buryakov was arrested Monday by law enforcement in New York,
according to a statement released by the Department of Justice,
but the other two men are no longer in the US and, according to
the FBI, “protected by diplomatic immunity from arrest and
prosecution."

“We will use every tool at our disposal to identify and hold
accountable foreign agents operating inside this country – no
matter how deep their cover,” US Attorney General Eric
Holder said Monday.

“The attempt by foreign nations to illegally gather economic
and other intelligence information in the United States through
covert agents is a direct threat to the national security of the
United States, and it exemplifies why counterespionage is a top
priority of the National Security Division,” Assistant
Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin said in the
statement.

Paperwork filed against the three men in US District Court for
the Southern District of New York suggests that physical and
electronic surveillance conducted by American law enforcement
against the individuals over the course of two-and-a-half years
led to the filing of federal charges.